There is a light at the end of this rather long and very dark tunnel we call the front yard project. This morning we had 13 tons of rock delivered for the planting beds. Three large piles that my kids are dying to play in.

The only problem with having 13 tons delivered is we have to shovel and relocate 13 tons or rock. My shoulders are sore just thinking of what lies ahead of us on Saturday. We do have some neighbors who are just as antsy to get this project done and they’ve volunteered to come help us. Evidently the neighborhood is tired of seeing us every Saturday out in our dirt patch!

Hallie came home from school and saw the piles of rock – she came to me confused.
H: What are those piles for?
Me: They’re to put in flower beds around all the plants.
H: The same flower beds we’ve been pulling rocks from every weekend.
Me: Yes
H: Then why did you make us pull them all out.
Me: Because I like to watch you work.
H: Sooo not cool!

She’s going to kill me when I ask her to pull more river rock out of the grass area!!

Speaking of killing me – I’m prepping myself for a colossal meltdown tomorrow morning when the kids go into the playroom and they realize all of their toys are gone. All of them, except the books. The room was a disaster. Every couple days, I’d make them clean it up and organize the toys and all I heard was whining and complaining. “But I didn’t get those toys out. This is going to take forever.”

Yesterday I asked an unnamed child to clean up the mess. As defiant as could be, their reply, “No”. That is definitely not a word I want to hear come out of any mouth when I ask them to do something. I’m pretty sure steam was coming out of my head. Instead of lashing out, I quietly left the room to regroup and control my anger. I wanted to march right back in there and rip out every toy in front of them. But I didn’t.

After a long and rational cooling period, I decided removing the toys for a while would be a good lesson. This evening I told Steve of my plan. He gave the child one more chance and asked them to clean the room and he got the response, “Ninjas don’t clean.”

Well child of mine – little ninjas may not clean and now little ninjas don’t have toys.

The kids went to bed and I went in with large totes and filled them up and removed them. It wasn’t a sophisticated process – there was definitely no organizing going on. Just removing.

Still not sure if or when they’ll get them back. And lets be real, it’s not as if every toy in the house has been removed – just the ones in the playroom. My kids are going to love me – removing all their toys and making them pick up rocks!